Actor Lewis Tan shares his hopes for Mortal Kombat 2 which was recently green lit by Warner Bros. with Moon Knight's Jeremy Slater penning the script.

Actor Lewis Tan shares his hopes for Mortal Kombat 2. When the original Mortal Kombat film series stalled after just two installments in 1995 and 1997, the popular IP was gifted a second chance at becoming a successful live-action franchise last year. With years of experience as a stuntman, Tan was tapped in the lead role as washed-up MMA fighter Cole Young, a new character created for the movie who crosses paths with iconic video game characters like Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) during his mission to defend Earth against Outworld.

Though 2021's Mortal Kombat was not very well-received by critics, as video game adaptations usually aren't, the movie did well enough at the pandemic box office and on HBO Max for Warner Bros. to recently green light a sequel. Taking over for Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, Mortal Kombat 2's script will be written by Jeremy Slater, who is known for his work on shows like Netflix's Umbrella Academy and Marvel's Moon Knight. While the returning cast has not yet been confirmed, Tan will likely be back in the lead role.

Now, during an interview with Film Updates promoting his new Netflix movie, Fistful of Vengeance, Tan shared his hopes for Mortal Kombat 2. The actor hyped up Slater as a writer and is interested in seeing how he will tackle the script. Because of the sheer number of storylines and characters at play, Tan hopes the sequel will be a tad longer to properly explore all the characters and themes. Also, he wouldn't mind a tad more blood, too. Read what Tan had to say below:

We got an amazing writer, Jeremy Slater, who wrote Moon Knight for Marvel, onboard. His writing is really good and he’s really smart. I’m excited to see what he develops, because it’s a tricky one with Mortal Kombat. There are so many storylines. It’s very complex; there are so many characters. It’s a hard one to get done in a two-hour period or an hour and a half. Hopefully, they can make the sequel a little bit longer and we can explore more characters and more themes, and just make it even bloodier and even bigger than the first one. That’s our plan.

Last year's Mortal Kombat clocked in at 1 hour and 50 minutes of runtime, which was longer than the two previous adaptations, though it still left a lot to be desired. The main gripe with Mortal Kombat was that it didn't feature the titular tournament, which was a point of contention among fans. Based on the end of the movie, which saw Shang Tsung vow revenge against Earth and Cole head to Hollywood in search of Johnny Cage, the sequel should deliver the fighting tournament audiences expected to see in first film.

In terms of Tan's hopes for a "bloodier" sequel, Mortal Kombat already pushed the limits of how violence and gore is allowed in an R-rated movie, which was a vast improvement upon its two PG-13 predecessors. It will be difficult for Mortal Kombat 2 to up the bloodiness even more, especially when it has other areas that should be improved first. With a talented writer like Slater on board, hopefully many of them will be addressed.

Next: Mortal Kombat 2: Quan Chi Is The Villain The Sequel Deserves (Not Shao Kahn)

Source: Film Updates